Life of an American immigrant in Amsterdam :)

Yoga – A great Dutch Language Anatomy Lesson

October 3, 2011

A while back I saw a Living Social Amsterdam deal for 10 yoga sessions for 35 euros. As it goes in most big cities, you get the ‘free week trial’ package at a yoga studio or the ‘first timer pass’ or deals like the Living Social deal and then you hop around studios until you find the one you really like. So far, I really like the classes at Zo-Zen which is located in the Inner Energy Shop. I have only been to two classes, but so far so good.

I really enjoy yoga for the physicial and spiritual aspects of the practice. I had been going regularly in DC for sometime, but when my lungs got screwed up, yoga became really tough. Then I started triathlons, so that took over and there wasn’t much time for yoga. In Amsterdam, I am going to make it a more regular thing.

So far in my two classes I’ve experience a class with 15 people in Dutch (where I basically looked to my neighbor to see what we had to do) and last week I was in a class with 2 other people! That class was great, as the teacher was very attentive and made some adjustments to my form. She also did the class half in English and half in Dutch so that when I was bent or twisted some weird way I wouldn’t have to turn my head to look at her every 5 seconds. It is also a great way for me to hear Dutch and pic up on vocabulary. Although I couldn’t pick up the word for ‘downward’, I know the word for dog = hond, so whenever I heard “sjkhskj-hond” I knew what I needed to be doing. Also, a simple ‘hand palm’ is the palm of your hand.

I’m sure if I sought out yoga classes in English the yogic experience might be better, but for the time being I am enjoying the combo lesson🙂